JOIN USA group of 18 tourists from the city returned from earthquake hit Nepal on Friday, only to recall their brush with death.
Madappa and Kamalamma, a couple aged 77 years and 65 years respectively, from Gokulam here were among them. Kamalamma was chatting along with fellow tourists inside the bus on April 25, when the vehicle started to tilt near Manokamana temple. The bus was stopped near Manokamana Temple, as some tourists wanted to explore the nature on a ropeway.
Kamalamma and few others stayed inside the bus, while Madappa and others stood outside. A few others including Sri Durga, 13-year-old daughter of Nagaraj Sharma and Suvarnambhe, their friend Shashikumar went to buy tickets for the ropeway even as Sharma captured the scenic scenery, when the earth started to shake.
For Shashikumar and Durga, it was nothing but destiny that saved them. With tickets in hand, they were yet to get it stamped, when they heard a huge sound.
Boulders were falling from the mountain on the other side of the ropeway, and it didn’t take much time for them to sense something unusual. Durga yelled at others in fear as they all ran towards the bus.
“Even as the petrified lot was boarding the bus, the vehicle was shaking at parts due to the strong tremors,” Madappa, a retired superintendent of the transport section at Central Food Technological Research Institute, told Deccan Herald.
“It is nothing but the god’s grace that we left Kathmandu in advance. On that ill-fated day we had left Kathmandu at 5:30 am to reach Manokamana temple at 9:30 am,” Nagaraj explained.
He also said though they were able to leave Manokamana temple by 12:40 pm, the group was stranded at Moglin — the only passage to India-Nepal border — at 1:45 pm. The boulders falling from the mountain had held up traffic up to several kilometres.
On Friday, when the group reached Mysuru, they heaved a sigh of relief for having “escaped from the jaws of death”.
The 18-member tourists party from Mysuru were among the 46-member group taken on a tour of north India and Nepal by Bengaluru-based Karnataka Kisan Yatri Seva Sangha.